Surprise
by keru.m
Summary: A pleasant surprise for HM.


Disclaimer: Characters, show etc are not mine.

A/N: Wrote this a while back, hadn't posted it here so thought I ought to. Light, short and without much substance.

**Surprise**

She paced the living room in anticipation. She was feeling absolutely, positively, unequivocally euphoric. That was the word: euphoric. A volcano waiting to erupt into masses of glitter and tinsel. Had she ever felt this way before? When she first became a marine? Maybe when she got her law degree? No. those were different. More like a deep, pervasive sense of satisfaction and pride she could feel tingling all the way to the tips of her fingers. Her wedding day? No. that was something else altogether. A soft glowing contentment that made her heart feel like it was wrapped in warm molasses, like it was dancing in a flurry of powdered sugar. This here was bona fide euphoria. She could not wait to share – speaking of which, she paused in her pacing, where was Harm?

The man would be late for his funeral, if he even bothered to show up, she huffed. Not that he knew he was supposed to be home. But still. Yup, she was downright giddy. She was going to explode if he didn't walk through that door at this exact, precise moment – she heard the key turn in the lock. Finally.

Harm entered the apartment balancing his briefcase and cover in one hand, the key still held in the other, his coat slung over his arm. He looked up to see Mac standing in the middle of the room looking as though she was channelling all the energy of the entire universe. And barely containing it.

"Mac?"

"Harm!" She just about shouted his name out and, to his utter surprise, jumped up and clapped her hands together, "Hi!"

Her good humour was infectious. "Hi," but he was still a little wary. And with good reason. This was Mac after all. The last time she was anywhere near this excited, he had ended up spending a weekend deep in a forest playing paintball with a group of marines and their significant others.

"I have some news!"

She was radiating happiness; he could practically see the air shimmer around her. He couldn't help but smile.

Mac walked towards him, pulled his briefcase, cover and coat from his grasp and threw them randomly behind her. As he incredulously watched them land in an unceremonious, scattered heap on the floor, she grabbed his hands in hers and dragged him to the couch before pushing him to take a seat. She sat down next to him and put her hands on his knee.

"I'm pregnant."

Harm thought the disorienting trip from the door to the couch had damaged his hearing.

"Sorry, Mac. I misheard you."

She laughed at the bewilderment etched into his features. "I don't think you did, Harm."

Now, he looked downright flabbergasted, "you mean…"

Mac nodded happily.

Harm hesitated, his hands stopping an inch away from her belly, which he eyed dubiously, "…in here."

She looked at him with no small degree of amusement. "Yup," she pointed to her stomach, "right in here."

Harm was too busy staring at her belly to notice all the fun she was having at his expense. Mac let him stare for exactly two minutes.

"Well?" she prodded. He sure was taking his sweet time absorbing the news.

Harm did not know what to say. He thought his heart was going to explode. "I don't know…I don't have words…it's like there are fireworks going off in my chest…it's like," he was still focused on her stomach, hands hovering a hair's width away, "like I would float if my shoes weren't weighting me down…Like flying without a plane."

Mac watched his face intently. Wow. Harm waxing poetic. She was sure it was a temporary side effect from the shock, but boy could she get used to this. Perhaps it was time to devise strategies to keep him in a perpetual mode of continuous shock. But first, the matter at hand.

"Flying without a plane," she repeated his words before giving a small sigh. Exhilaration and terror battled for supremacy, "more like infiltrating enemy lines naked."

Harm finally lifted his eyes to meet hers, "Hey, now. That type of image is what got us here in the first place." They held the other's gaze, enjoying the familiarity and the newness of it all. They had come so far the two of them. To think that a meeting in a rose garden would, after years of friendship, tears, humour, anger, trust and love, always love, culminate in this tiny miracle forming inside of her – she could not wrap her mind around the thought.

She broke the silence, "this is so…unexpected."

Harm frowned, "I thought we'd covered our bases, too. But they do say that no method short of abstention is foolproof. Maybe it was that night-"

He stopped when she rolled her eyes and chuckled softly. Harm the poet had obviously left the building to make room for Harm the male.

"That's not what I meant."

"Then?"

"Me. I don't know," she looked down at her hands which rested on her still-flat tummy. Harm's hands were still hovering, hesitating to make contact. "I never thought I'd feel this."

He smiled at her. "I am an incredible marksman. And have a stellar record for accuracy and endurance. You shouldn't be surprised, really." His expression was smug but as his eyes wandered to where their child rested, he abruptly went from smug to panicked. "Mac, I don't know what to do," he looked at her stomach as though the nascent embryo would jump out at any moment and wrap him in a chokehold.

Mac made a mental note to tease him mercilessly once the news had properly sunk into his addled mind. In the meanwhile, she took his hands and laid them under her shirt on either side of her belly button. "This is a good start."

He smiled softly – she could see a switch go off in his brain – and focussed his attention on her belly.

"Can she hear us?" His voice was full of wonder.

"She?" Mac had not considered the sex of their child. A girl. A boy. Their child. She didn't think there was enough room in this world to contain her happiness.

"She. He. Whichever." As far as he was concerned, anything that was a product of their love could be nothing but beautiful.

"I think so...we should buy some baby books. They would know, I think."

That seemed answer enough for him. "Hey there, Little One. I'm really happy to meet you."

Mac enjoyed the feel of his warm palms caressing her stomach, his eyes focused on their child, a smile full of awe teasing the corners of his lips. He looked pleased, she thought.

"This is alright?" the question was tentative and brought Harm's attention back to his wife.

"Of course it is, sweetheart. We didn't exactly plan this," his eyes went back to her stomach, his thumb softly circling her bellybutton. She had the feeling his eyes would drift towards that part of her anatomy a lot more from now on. His gaze was distant and she wished she could see what he was seeing. He finally continued, "but, wow." A thought suddenly occurred to him, "how did you find out?"

"Annual check-up. It struck me that I was late when the doctor asked whether I was pregnant. She ran a test and voila, we're going to be parents." She watched him turn pensive and could guess the direction of his thoughts. "You've never made a promise to me you can't keep, Harm. Not yet." She grinned at him.

"Not yet," he repeated returning her grin in a way that made her think life was much too short and made her want to chuck it all and tuck them both – the three of them, now – into some remote corner of the world. They could grow beans, have a couple of cows for milk...maybe one or two for meat, too. Four walls and a roof. And a shooting range, that would be a nice addition.

"You still with me, marine?"

She broke out of her daydream and looked at him oddly. As if any force on earth could keep her from him. She remembered what he had said a few moments ago.

"You fantasize about me infiltrating enemy lines naked?"

"I fantasize about you naked, period. The rest is just details." His smile had yet to dim.

"Huh. Good to know." She wondered how he felt about beans.

The End.


End file.
